Welcome 2nd Grade!!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Yes, that's right. Heaven has abosultely no idea what fun and games are about to break loose up there, now that the 3 Taylor girls are roaming around the place. Add in their bald-headed baby brother and Aunt Nell and I can hear the laughter already.

Unfortunately for us, we got word this morning that my sweet Aunt Connie died last night in Connecticut. She was a month shy of her 90th birthday. She was doing great at year ago at my mom's funeral. Drove herself down from Broward to attend. Unfortunately, she fell and injured her leg a few times, and it never quite healed as it should. She was moved up to connecticut to be with her son and his family in December. Was admitted into a nursing home for rehab shortly thereafter but never quite bounced back. We shall miss her greatly.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Its been girl scout cookie selling season. My troop has been involved the last 3 weekends in selling cookies outside Publix and Walgreens. I'm happy to report that we are officially SOLD OUT!

Yippee!!

My dad remains in the nursing home. His 100 days are up around 3/6, when he'll come home. While he's been in, I tented his house and my house for termites. That also involved hiring a security guard for both houses, since people break in and will rob you blind without one. Jerks.

Of course, it also involved emptying the house of open bottles of stuff, food, medicine, etc. And we did this during cookie season, too. I'm just glad its over. Now, we just need to get his carpets cleaned, and the house will be good to go.

Taylor is doing well in school. I got her a spanish tutor, and she's doing great. Since 99.9% of her school is hispanic, the class is geared to those who already speak and understand spanish. Um, that's not T. Now, though, she's learning very quickly. I'm thrilled.

For some reason, I can no longer download pics from my iphone to my laptop. That is majorly interfering with my blogging. I think my laptop has a bug, as I can't download newer iphone software, either. Hopefully, I can get this figured out quickly. Its just not was fun posting without seeing T in living color.

Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Happy New Year!!!! We had a quiet night at home. Taylor broke out her paints and was quite crafty. That kept her busy all night as Dot and I watched TV, had a nice dinner, and a few drinks.

We barely made it to midnight. It was a total fight to stay awake.

Taylor, on the other hand, had no problem whatsoever staying awake. For the first time ever, she was up running around at midnight. There was no way Dot or I could go to sleep and have her miss out.

On New Years' Day, Taylors god parents and family drove down from Tampa. The boys went of the Orange bowl game, while the girls went out to dinner then back to my house to gossip. Ceci allowed G to spend the night, so taylor had her first sleep over EVER!! She was so excited when we said yes, she couldn't stand it. They watched movies, ate popcorn in bed, played video games, and stayed up til midnight. They then had waffles in bed the next morning. Those girls were loving life.

I can't believe the holidays are over. They were pretty strange this year, as for the first time ever there was no older generation around. As many of you know, my mom died in May, my dad is in a nursing home through February, and my mom's older sister suffered some health issues causing her to move to CT with her son for the foreseeable future. It was just me, my sissy and Taylor. But for T, we probably wouldn't have celebrated. But since its all about T, the celebrations went on.

Now, we're trying to gear up for school next week and get back to our usual routine. I'm planning another girlscout meeting...its going to be all about yarn. Stay tuned for that.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Well now, its been a real long time since I've blogged. Much has gone on, so I'll do some quick bullets to catch everyone (or two) up:

We had thanksgiving at my house this year. Right after eating, I took my dad to the ER. Why? Well, on the monday before he had fallen 3 times at home. The last time, he hurt his shoulder. It wasn't getting any better. We suspected (correctly it turns out) that it was broken. When I watched him trying to climb the 3 steps into my house, I realized he couldn't and needed help. We had to literally pick up his knee to raise his foot to the next highest step. The day before all the falls, he had no problem lifting his foot to climb his 5 steps into his house. I suspected (correctly) that he had suffered another stoke. MRI confirms. Doc says that the stroke was in an area in the brain that often affects vision. I suspect that he was in the bathroom, suffered the stroke, lost some or all vision, became disoriented, fell and could not brace himself as he fell as he couldn't see, therefore breaking his shoulder. Luckily, his vision has returned. He is now in a nursing home for 100 days, getting physical therapy.

Taylor had her Christmas show at school. It was cute, but I could barely see her as they had her in the back. Despite the risers, you still couldn't really see T as she's so short. Bummer.

With my dad in the nursing home, we took the opportunity to take a quick family vacation to Disney. Me, my sissy, and Taylor had not been on a family vacation together in 3 years, since my mom fell and broke her hip. Someone always had to stay in town in case something went wrong. With my dad taken care of in the nursing home, we were free to take a quick trip. My sissy sprung for the Polynesian Hotel at Disney. That was her surprise christmas gift to us. We had never stayed there in the past b/c its so pricey. She claims to have gotten a really good rate. I must say, that hotel ROCKED! What fun we had at the pool, that had its own volcano mountain with a water slide inside. T continuously slid down the slide. Over. and over. and over. and over. Dot and I continuously hit the bar. Over. and Over. and Over. No need to worry about driving, as we just had to hop the monorail to go to the parks. I am so totally spoiled now.

We had haircutting, and T made the earth-shattering decision to let her bangs grow out. I'm getting her elastic headbands, about 2 inches wide, to keep her bangs out of her eyes as this slow process progresses. Stay tuned for some cute pictures of T with a forehead.

Bought myself a Kindle Fire. Its like an Ipad but cheaper. LOVE IT!

I had a bizarre pain last friday night, that seemed to be located in the area between my boobs, and the area below my boobs but above my belly button. Because I'm so fat and out of shape and of a "certain age" and riddled with stress, I was worried it might actually be a heart attack. Off to the Urgent care center we went, who sent us to the Hospital ER. All tests were negative, but they admitted me anyway for observation just to be sure. Also, to do a nifty CAT scan after injecting me with iodine. Pictures show my heart is absolutely perfect with no blockage. What a relief. I didn't think it would be my heart as despite my out of shape status, I tend to have low blood pressure and low cholesterol...despite a lifetime of eating steak, potatoes, and butter. The pain went away as I was in the ER, and never returned. Maybe it was my gall bladder, maybe it was some other type of GI issue. Who knows. If it ever happens again, I guess I'll hunt up a GI doc for further testing. I'm just glad to know its not my heart.

I'm behind on my Christmas shopping. Have gotten stuff for T but no one else. Big sigh.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

I've got lots of catching up to do on this ol' blog. Even though I doubt anyone other than my aunt and cousin ever tune in here.

Featured here is a pic of the beginnings of our elf costume. GS will be in the City of South Miami Parade of Elves on 12/2. Found the cute tights are target today for 4 bucks. (Her elf hat from Oriental trading has yet to be delivered.)

Friday, November 2, 2012

we did our usual trick or treating with our friends the Ps. T is always thrilled to hang with the big girls...

Can you believe that we went to a house, wherein an odd man answered the door. Though unvoiced at the time, that little voice in my head was saying...that guys wierd. The kids came running back to the street from his front door and announced what they received...

Cough drops. On the bright side, they were individually wrapped cough drops, but they were still frickin' cough drops!!!!!

WTF??

I can't help but wonder...did the guy run out of candy and thought cough drops taste so good that they are a good substitute for candy?

Did her never have candy and was just giving out the drops???

If he ran out of candy, he couldn't think to give out a few pennies instead???

If he ran out of candy or never had candy, he couldn't think to turn off the damned lights and just not answer the door???

Needless to say, the cough drops were confiscated by the moms and dumped.

T's crazy school does not celebrate Halloween, per se. Instead, they have a "fall festival". All the kids, except for the littlest, dress as farmers. They bring in decorated pumpkins, canned food for migrant workers, long sleeve shirt for migrant workers, and proceed to celebrate the whole day.

Saturday, October 27, 2012

The party was a HUGE success. As some of you may know, T was dressing up as Medusa. In anticipation thereof, I thought it would be appropriate for her to have crazy curly hair. Of course, Taylor's beautiful shiny black hair is straight as an arrow, and doesn't really hold much of a curl. So, I figured....

Hair curlers!

Off we went to CVS, and found spongy "hair rags". The curlers were all too big. I also searched the store for some Dippity Do, to make sure the curls held. Much to my dismay, dippity do is not for sale there.

As we were leaving the section, I spied the head gear. For most of my life, my mom wore one of these satin shower caps to bed. Either over her curlers or over her hairdo, as she insisted it kept it from getting messed up. It was only in her later years that she stopped wearing them. So, I got one for T. She was VERY excited...

I'm happy to report that her hair turned out great. Of course, the curls immediately started falling, but none the less stayed wavy all night. We sprayed her with hot pink color and gold glitter and she was good to go.

Meanwhile, I dressed up as a vampire victim. Black dress, white make up, red lipstick drooling blood, and two red dots on my neck completed the look. I also found my bats headband , which I thought nicely completed the look. Some crazy make up for T and me, and we were done!

Finally, our first guest arrived. A sweet butterfly from T's class.

The party itself was lots of fun. I had the girls sing halloween carols, which are basically xmas songs with halloween words, we played pin the nose on the pumpkin, Boogo (halloween Bingo), bobbed for apples, threw sticky plastic spiders at a web like darts, and made halloween masks with one of those foam craft kits.

The hit of the night was the bobbing for apples and also pinning the nose on the pumpkin.

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

As you may have figured out, I've been kind of busy around here. Dot has been out in Idaho, coming back for a Saturday and returning on sunday. Plus....I've been in full party planning mode. We're having a GS Halloween Party on Friday. Its a teacher work day, and I've taken the day off.

The girls will come in costume. I'm going to try and pull together a witch or vampira costume for me. Black dress, scary make up , crazy hair. that about does it.

We'll be having pin the nose on the pumpkin, bobbing for apples, halloween bingo, mask decorating, yummy food and drinks. Should be a fun time.

Between girl scouts and school, November is going to be chock full of fun (read: exhausting) events what with the holidays coming, T's carnival, etc.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Well, I'm happy to report that I survived, with no serious injuries. Physically.

Mentally? I'm not so sure.

I can say it was not as bad as I was anticipating. I met some really wonderful women and learned quite a bit from them. My lunch went over fabulously. I brought ham and turkey. Squeeze mayo and mustard. Cheese and bread, and also some prepared salads.

Part of my duties was to bring some foil. I was in target and found it on sale 2 for 1. I looked, found the Reynolds Wrap, and found the box that said non-stick. My sissy raves about the foil that is non stick. I must say I love it too. My cheese from my pizza slices NEVER stick to the foil in my toaster oven. Its the best.

Well. Who knew that Reynolds Wrap makes something other than tin foil?? I certainly didn't. I mean, I call foil Reynolds Wrap...no matter who makes it. apparently, they also make some BS item called pan lining. Its foil with paper on the back, that one apparently lines casserole dishes when they have no teflon.

I can't tell you the crazy looks and jokes made at my expense. I figure that's what they get for assigning that task to the non-cook. Luckily, another woman in our group brought some too.

I'm also the woman who jumped up screaming and hitting myself to "get the bug off", when we were sitting around the camp fire. Um, there was no bug to be found. It was the end of the rope wrapped around my waist that was tickling me.

I'm also the woman who started yelling, who's got the bug spray, when a HUGE spider was hanging over some of the women's heads as we sat at a pic nic table. Um, apparently another huge no no. Bug spray is apparently not allowed at camps.

The bug world, however, got their revenge. Anyone who knows me, knows that I have a major phobia with roaches. If there is a palmetto bug around, it will gravitate to me. ALWAYS.

As we all were laying around in our bunk beds in our air conditioned cabins, someone noticed a palmetto bug on the ceiling. It, of course, started heading toward me. Where else would it head??

I jumpted and ran to the bathroom screaming, while the other ladies dealt with it. Of course, it ran...right into my bed. ICK!!

Long time later and after stripping my bed of its bedclothes, the roach was finally killed.

this was at midnight.

I got no sleep for the rest of the night. I was too traumatized from the frickin palmetto bug. Because as we all know....where there's one, there's 10.

After 2 hours sleep, we could finally wake up, eat breakfast, and head home.

Mission Accomplished.

I am now camp-certified. I think our first camp out will be my house, followed by some other inside venue, followed perhaps by Disney's fort wilderness, where they will pitch the tent for you, man the camp fire for you, and deliver pizza if you wish...not room service, but rather tent service.

A marvelous plan was made in the stars,to create a miracle across the ocean so far....Then entwine and weave all the hopes and labor,it would take to bring us this joy called "Taylor"....Now three lives are blessed and somewhere in the stars,the planners are smiling, as we all are.-Anon.

Taylor's Gal Pals

How Long We've Been a Family:

Mischief & Mermaids

...the diary of a single mom, who's attempting to raise one sassy little girl!